


A trek to the horizon

by SpornyKun



Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game), Star Trek
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-03
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:27:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 14,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23453230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpornyKun/pseuds/SpornyKun
Summary: Completed story. A bonus section starts at chapter 11 that I will update from time to time to add characters sheets,  other epilogues (at least one), and some artwork (if I ever get one completed, but expect at least one concept art of Captain Sirak)Earth, year 2066.The Vulcan never got to make a first contact, as all life was obliterated by a swarm of self replicating, biomass fuelled war robots. Quarantined and then forgotten, the system was left on its own for centuries.Earth, a few centuries later.Following a high-priority order, a starship of the United Federation of Planets led by Captain Sirak enter the Sol system, and discovers a world that is not so dead.
Comments: 19
Kudos: 22





	1. Prologue

Lead observer's log. The autonomous war robots have conquered two third of the planet. The people there are fighting vigorously, in the hope that a project of super-weapon called "Zero Dawn" will go to fruition and save their world if given enough time.

I find that highly illogical, as the self-replication system of the robot keep their growth rate slightly exponential, and thus will continue to overwhelm whatever defense lines they will encounter.

Moreover, current observation let me conclude that it is too late to save the biosphere, because it has collapsed beyond the critical point. I am positively convinced that it is now impossible to restore it. If that "Zero Dawn" weapon is effectively created, deployed, and works as expected, it would not allow the people of this planet to survive.

Supplemental. The robots showed a growing capacity to take over our probes. The communication protocols of our devices have been steadily reversed-enginereed, to the point that we lost control on them. The builtin self-destruct of most probes have been triggered when succesfully overriden. Remaining probes that failed to self-destruct have been shot hastily, according to security procedures.

I will send a report to the High Command, recommending to quarantine this system.

* * *

Lead observer's log, a warp signature from the Sol system has been detected. Five seconds later, a gamma rays burst was detected at the limit of the system. It was caused without a doubt by a fault on some antimatter containment system, leading to a catastrophic failure. Arriving at this location, we found a wreckage with no sign of life.

However, a lot of data containers were properly protected and were salvaged from the wreckage and will be brought back to Vulcan for thorough study and cataloguing.

A quick glance showed a kind of progressive curriculum, looking like an attempt to archive and teach most of their knowledge, their cultural diversity, their history, as well as their scientific achievements.

It is a big loss that these people disappear when they were almost ready for a first contact

* * *

Lead observer's log, this is the last observation of the Sol system before an effective quarantine with military restriction. The robots have conquered almost all of the planet. Any sign of life have disappeared.


	2. The legacy

She had finally found it. After thoroughly searching any scrap of information about Elisabet Sobeck's home, correlating locations names of the Old Ones against todays places, Alloy was finally standing before a corpse sitting on a not so decayed bank, wearing an environmental autonomous suit. The suit could still prompt the holographic name tag of the wearer when sollicited, and Aloy could read the name of the woman that she had believed to be her mother for some time.

Projecting a simulation of the sleeping face of Elisabet on the helmet of the suit, the young woman felt overwhelmed and cried without restraint, kneeing in front of the bank. After some times, tears runned out, and she could notice the small globe representing the Earth, resting in the palm of the dead woman. She decided to keep it as a memento of Elisabet and of her mission that was not finished yet : to rebuild Gaia and to bring back its subfunctions under control to stabilize and continue the terraforming process.

She wondered whether she should leave the body as it has been for centuries. She finally decided to give Elizabeth a proper burial. She digged a hole in front the bank, trying to keep the triangle shaped bush of flowers intact, then delicately removed the suit that was still fairly intact. Under the helmet, she found a seemingly peaceful mummified face, not so far from the simulation. Even her clothes have been preserved. She got the surprise to get a signal from Elisabet's focus, awakened by the direct sunlight no more blocked by the suit. She had wanted to leave it at first, but given the fact that it was still functionning, she decided to keep it, putting it in the same pouch than the little globe. She would have time for it later.

She delicately laid the remains of the corpse in the hole, on the ground that she had covered with flowers. Then, kneeled beside the hole, after some time in an awkward silence, she felt the urge to blable a kind of farewell. She ended up telling a lot about her life so far, how she felt toward Elisabet, how she felt overwhelmed by the task of rebuilding Gaia. She talked until she had nothing more to say, then she kept solemnly still, and finally she put the earth back in the hole. She used the bank as a base for the altar. For the offering, she put there an ancient vessel she had found in the remains of the house nearby.

She stayed near the grave some more time, tinkering with the two tokens she has kept with her. First the globe, that was in fact a locket that could hold a small object inside. She decided that it would be the perfect case to put the focus of Elisabet into when she would not use it. She put back the small globe inside the leather pouch. Later, she would ask Teb to make a special pouch that could be more meaningful for the memento and at the same time sturdy and functionnal enough to accomodate her rough lifestyle.

Then, she replaced her focus with the one of Elisabet. The glowing interface lighted up. Browsing through the files, she discovered lots of personnal data as well as work data, and time went by without her noticing.

She was moved to see the few personnal pictures that was stored in the focus. She got a glimpse of Elisabet's mother through some of them, and also through some audio files.

The work data covered a broad range of topics. Scientific papers to read, personnal thoughts on this or that. Aloy's heart raced when she discovered a trove of working notes and schematics about Zero dawn and the design of Gaia, and a fully detailled and interactive map of the Gaia Prime complex. She was in awe as she could disassemble any part up to an individual room, highlight any group of information like power lines, and so on. She mentally reconciled the parts that she had walked in with their original location and layout.

She eventually sent this map on her focus for convenience. Only this map, so that it would be the only thing that Sylens would find, for now. The shaddy Banuk kept silent after their final parting, but she felt that she wanted to keep as much data as possible from his prying eyes.

Sure, she would need the help of Sylens sooner or later, to get a faint understanding of the most arcane elements –could she be able to understand them correctly ?–. She was not fond of this man, but it is a fact that he is the most knowledgeable person about anything related to the Old Ones. On a brighter note, she could also ask Cyan to sift into the notes, and maybe fill some gaps ? However, she would not be able to reach the AI before next spring, when the Cut would be hospitable enough for her.

She put back the focus of Elisabet into the globe, in the pouch. After a last night, Aloy left to go back to Meridian. She had a fully autonomous terraforming system managed by the most sophisticated artificial intelligence ever designed to rebuild from the ground up, and she had no idea where to start from –yet–. But she had got some hints, and new clues to follow.

All in all, she was filled with hope in her success.


	3. Flyby

It should have been a quick observation mission for T'Lek. A round trip from Vulcan to perform a few flybys from a safe distance of a dead planet littered with automated war robots that were ready to attack any source of energy and biomass. That was the very reason the Sol system had been quarantined _and_ put under military restriction thousand years ago, preventing any regular monitoring.

Shortly after the containment had been decided, Vulcan people had been busy between internal power struggles and galactic scale wars against other space civilizations. At times of peace, all that mattered was consolidating the emerging Federation of United Planets and exploring the galaxy to discover new life and new civilizations, where no one has gone before. All in all, the Sol system has been forgotten.

T'Pesh, the mother of T'Lek, stumbled upon old data about this system, while she was slowly recovering from a debilitating illness that got her bedridden for monthes. Out of boredom, she was sifting through all the data about all the systems in the vicinity of Vulcan. That is how she noticed the unusual status of this system, its lack of recent data as well as an humongous archive described as a compilation of knowledge build by the people from Terra, the third planet of the Sol system, before their demise.

T'Lek, then still a child, received a copy of the archive from her mother. T'Pesh wanted her third daugther, the most weak against emotions, to be distracted from the distressing situation. The girl took the hint and studied all the data she could from the archive, and did continue to do so throughout her life anytime she needed to keep her emotions at bay.

The mere distraction had become an intellectual interest, and drove the curiosity that lead her to be a xenoethnologist, to study and compare a multitude of evolutions of cultures, sciences, and technologies. Her insight and discipline made her a good operational for observation missions on primitive worlds, and that in turn nurtured her own researches.

After noticing that the Sol system has been neglected for around thousand Terran years, she petitionned the High Council of Vulcan to be sent on an observation mission in order to assess the current state of the quarantined system : to collect the data from whatever probe that was still usable ; to assess the threat level by sending lures ; and if there was no more danger, do a close survey of this world in order for the High Council to decide further actions.

The petition went its way through the administrative workflow, and had enough merit to be stalled only for a decade before being approved, and a few years more to be founded. Fortunately, T'Lek was assigned to the mission as lead observer. Because the mission could be risky, the small T'Plana-Hath-type scientific shuttle has been equiped with some military grade protection equipment, mostly a cloaking system, boosted shields and enhanced computer protections.

That's how the scientist finally got to be in the system that had such an influence over her life. And instead of a desolated world, she had found a thriving biosphere.

T'Lek got a clue that this world would be not so dead when she were getting close to the natural satellite of the third planet, where an automated observation probe had been setup and was still responding. A glance at the planet, even from afar, was showing a hint of a clear atmosphere instead of a heavy and opaque one.

Hailing the probe using its secure protocol, she got a compressed report of the visual sensor aimed at the planet. The animation showed that it took hundreds of years to restore the biosphere. Then some faint artificial lights appeared in the night side, suggesting settlements of intelligent life forms. The probe compression routine allowed to register data until less than 20 Terran years ago before having no more space left. The report ended just after showing a big explosion on a mountain followed by a big fire. That would be a place to investigate to find out what was there.

After dealing with the probe, the shuttle flought to the planet with the cloaking system activated. While slowly approaching the atmosphere to settle on a low orbit, the crew clearly saw areas covered with vegetation. They proceeded as planned by launching lure probes, and monitored them for one full revolution before retrieving them unschathed. The probes reported the presence of humanoïd life, as well as signs of an advanced technology, but no attempt at communication where reported.

Deeming the planet safe enough and breathable, the crew decided to enter the atmosphere to proceed to a more thorough study. Going closer to the ground, they eagerly started their observations. Going back and forth between the main screen showing the outside and their consoles displaying streams of arcanes data coming from all the sensors, T'Lek and his assistant did not miss the fact that big masses of air were stirred up by an intricate weather. The phenomenon provided a variety of compounded temperature and hygrometry patterns, resulting in various biotypes, going from the harshest like frozen lands and scorching deserts to the most hospitable ones like tempered lands and hot forests where organic life visibly thrived.

T'Lek ordered to go slower and closer to the ground to gather more data. The pilot complied without fail. They expected the cloaking system to prevent them from being discovered. However they had to take care of the giant mechanized birds that were patrolling around several areas. The anti-collision system was more than usefull. It also helped that all the machines had very predictable behaviors.

They realized that the various swarms of animal-shaped autonomous robots were the signs of technology reported by the probes. The robots were communicating using a mix of audio signals and radiowave emissions, the selection of the channel depending on the recipient proximity. They noticed that the machines seemed to occupy the niche of big animals. The biggest living organisms were humanoïds, then came a few kinds of ungulate mammals, then some big birds and fishes. Insectoïds and plants were more diversified, and the microbiota was close to typical levels.

For trained eyes, it was obvious that this biosphere could not be self-sustained, and that machines played a major role to keep the ecosystem from collapsing. However, T'Lek and her crew found this development fascinating. A more thorough scan showed that most of the war robots were still there and deactivated, buried in the ground that have been formed during the last millenium. They could also see ruins of what have been big cities. The current Terran people had not reached the advancement level of industrial civilisations.

A sudden alert of the shuttle quickly followed by an escape maneuver from the pilot brought back the scientists to more mundane problems, like the fact that some flying robots somehow sensed their presence and were attacking them. Most throwed at them a kind of freezing fluid easy to dodge, but the biggest one was firing a shower of lightning balls that would require the uncloaking of the shuttle to activate the shield.

«Sukor, outspeed the birds !» T'Lek shouted.

«Already doing so ! There's a leak in the cloaking system ! Find it !»

«Full diagnostic in progress !»

Their hands were hovering frantically over their consoles. It was not good. A defect in the exhaust of the impulse drive was the root cause of the leak. Worse, some lightning balls had broke the calibration system and required to land quickly to proceed to the repairs. It was frustrating, as they was eager to go back to the observation. It was exciting as well, as it required going outside the shuttle and explore directly this new world.


	4. A morning as usual

The travel back to the Sundom was as peaceful as it could be. Looking far ahead, she could finally guess the mountain that was bordering the Sundom toward its north west border, and it would take her around 10 days at her usual speed. Alloy was slightly disappointed that she could not detect and override a Tallneck to obtain a map of this area. That would have allowed her to better going around herds of machines here and there.

Fortunately, she only encountered machines known to her. She had no problem to override some of them to take over the other one, preventing her from taking too much risks. And that was when she did not have the choice to avoid them with a little detour.

She was acutely aware that the machines were an essential part of the terraforming process. Thus she was now reluctant to break them, unless she has no other means to save herself or someone else, or that she was in need of essential parts for maintaining her gears.

Like each day after setting the camp shortly before the sunset, she ate some roasted meat and roots, then delved into the data from the focus of Elisabeth. She tried to make sense of the scientific papers on artificial intelligence. She was following the logic of the papers, but any formula, any excerpt of code was a mystery, even if she could recognize patterns and structures.

She was eager to return to Sunfall. She wanted to tinker with what should have been the shell hosting the prototype of Gaia, provided she could find a way to power it with a stable and big enough source of electricity. And she felt the urge to go back to Bitter Climb where Gaia had been sheltered for a thousand years : studying the interactive map, she finally understood that Gaia was stored in a very tough room, designed to resist catastrophic conditions, and with a dedicated safety power source that would allow the AI to shutdown gracefully.

If she could find this room and if the inside was intact, then Gaia could be switched on, even for a few minutes. Would that be enough to get some instructions and some help to restore the facility ?

Waking up early, before the sun rise, she went to hunt as usual. She was wandering silently, guided to her next prey by her focus, when the device detected an unknown signal. Turning the head to locate where it came from, she saw some flickering lights appearing far away in her field a view, and getting closer quickly. She recognised the lightning balls of a stormbird, and her jaw dropped when she realized that the angry machine was chasing a kind of dark thing flying in the sky, something that was actually trying to dodge the attack, without success.

And whatever it was, it was steadily going down with an overwhelming sound. It touched the ground roughly, tumbling, rolling and drifting until it stopped not far from the huntress. Without thinking, she ran toward the wreckage as quickly as possible. If there was any survivor, they needed help now. Even if the stormbird had lost interest and was quickly leaving, she expected others machines to come soon and recycle the fuming carcass.

Arriving at the wreckage, she quickly assessed the situation and entered inside through a crack. The interior was a mess full of opaque fumes that made breathing and seeing difficult. Crouching and holding her breath as much as possible, and thanks to her focus, she could spot 3 unconscious bodies that she laboriously carried outside one after another.

After securing the bodies, still coughing and eyes pricking from the fumes, she scanned them to check for internal injuries, while she was patting each one to check for any bleeding. Two of them had no serious wounds, but the last one had a long and deep cut along the leg and was bleeding steadily. She quickly pressured the main arterie in the inside of the thigh, frantically searching on her something she could use to make a tourniquet, but most of her gears were at her camp.

Unsheathing her knife, she struggled to tear apart singlehandly the already damaged trouser of the wounded, while maintaining the pressure point as much as possible. Their was so much blood spilled all over her hands, forearms and her clothes that she was becoming nauseus from the stench.

As the sun had risen, she realized something was odd. The blood was quite a darkened blueish instead of brownish. Looking up to the head, she realized that the 3 unconscious men were bald, with a prominent pair of ears having their lobes joining on the forehead, that had two protruding bumps. She was still trying to understand what she was seeing when she felt surrounded. Without her noticing, a tens of people were standing around her and the inconscious people, doning a threatening attitude.

«Are there anybody else inside ?» the leader of this group asked with a firm tone.

Aloy did not have the time to answer.

«I detect no sign of life inside the wreckage, ma'am !» another voice replied on the same tone.

«I carried them here !» Aloy shot back with a loud voice. «I could use some help !»

She didn't have finished speaking that each body was tended by someone. The woman that went next to the huntress spoke with a calm and soothing voice.

«I am Doctor Daxyl, chief medical officer. Thank you for bringing them out of danger !»

«I am Aloy. This one is badly injured on the leg, the other seems bruised only.»

«I see. Could you help me a little bit more ?»

«Sure, and be quick ! I fear this man have already lost a lot of blood.»

«Don't worry», the doctor answered with the same soothing tone while puting gently her hand on Aloy's shoulder, «it will be quick now. Daxyl to Kau, 7 to beam up !»

As soon as the doctor had spoken those strange words, Aloy was blinded by a luminous glow surronding her that disappeared almost instantly. Suddenly the surrounding was no more lit by the orange morning sun, but by a hard white light. The coolness of a light breeze was replaced by lukewarm and still air. The desert was no more, they were in a strange and obviously artificial room. It looked like how it would have been in the ruins of the Old Ones when it was still in use.

«You can release the pressure Aloy, he is stabilized.»

The words from the doctor pulled the young woman back to what she was doing, and she released the leg. The strange blood had started to dry and her skin was becoming itchy.

«Aloy, please use this towel to remove all this blood.»

She took the towel handed by Daxyl and started wiping the blood staining her skin. The sensation was so unpleaseant, like she was rubbing her arms with a hard and coarse rag, but it removed the blood with an efficiency never seen by her. She was feeling sick of all this blood, her heart pounding as if it wanted to break free, her own blood pulsing painfully at her temples.

The doctor was thanking a nurse that had come to take care of the wounded, before talking back to the huntress.

«Aloy, could you tell me how you are feeling now ?»

«To be honest, I feel weird.», the young women replied as she was feeling hotter and fuzzy. «Definitely not well !»

«I see, then I will give you something to relieve you, and it might sedate you a little. Please give me your arm.»

The calm and matter-of-factly tone made Aloy do as told without thinking. She felt more nauseus and weirder quickly, and a little bit scared by the strange behavior of her own body. She barely felt a pricking sensation at her arms before quickly losing consciousness. The last thing she was aware of before her complete blackout was being caught by the doctor.


	5. Sickbay

Chief medical officer's log. An impromptu mission in the Sol system required my partake in the away team of Sergeant Kirstash. A shuttle of Ferengi smugglers has trespassed a quarantined system to crash on the third planet named Terra. When we were beamed on site, I could only see that a Terran woman had already carried the three survivors out of danger and was taking care of them. The terran presented herself as «Aloy» and provided me with a quite accurate account of the state of the wounded. She clearly has some fair skills in field first-aid, and given her primitive looking clothes and equipment, this planet is obviously not advanced enough to qualify for a first contact.

In spite of this, I decided to take her onboard, as I know for sure that the exposition to Ferengi blood is bound to provoke a strong anaphylaxy reaction. I was right, as I could read her vitals quickly aiming toward a state of shock. It is fortunate that my tricorder could suggest with an high confidence level a combination of epinephrine and doxylamine to counteract the shock and stop the allergic reaction on time. She would have been beyond hope a few minutes later.

While I was naking the Terran to remove any harmful traces of blood and send her clothes to cleaning, Kirstash sent to detention the two lightly injured smugglers that have been checked up. Then, she sorted the equipment of the Terran in order to store her weapons and ammunitions in a sealed crate. The remaining stuff has been put in a changing room, where her clothes will be stored after cleaning.

I noticed a small device on her right temple, that turns out to be a personnal holographic augmented reality assistant, that contrast starkly with the primitive allure of the rest of her equipment. No wonder she could scan the wreckage and extract quickly the survivors out of danger.

I expect my intermediary report to Captain Sirak to excite his curiosity._

* * *

Daxyl was finally having a little break in her office, now that all was quiet and under control.

It has been a little bit hectic with a Ferengi that has almost bleeded to death, and her Terran savior that reacted very badly to the pyrocytes of the Ferengi blood. The two others Ferengi survivors were lightly wounded. They had been quickly tended and brought to detention.

Now all of her remaining patients were soundly sleeping and recovering. The team of nurses and security guards would be able to watch them for a few hours, and she was preparing herself to write the report that she would have to send to the captain. She suspected that he would pay a visit shortly anyway.

And so he did without fail : the door of her office chimed to announce a visitor.

«Come in ! Captain Sirak, it's a pleasure to see you !» Daxyl said with a bit of sarcasm. «As you can see, the Ferengis survivors are out of danger, as well as this Terran woman.»

«Good,» he answered without hesitation with a deep and flegmatic voice so typical of Vulcan people. «I am looking forward to read your report ! The Ferengis will try to bring some kind of diplomatic accident to bargain whatever compensation they are fancying. And now I will have the dubious pleasure to deals with upholding the Prime Directive with that Terran woman on board. Thank you very much !»

«You're welcome !» the doctor answered gleefully.

After years of working together, the two crew members were comfortably bantering at each other. Sirak definitely had the typical rigidity of the Vulcan way of thinking. However, decades of exploring the galaxy and dealing with hundreds of species so much unlike him had made his mind flexible enough to appreciate humor, and he comfortably practiced it with trusted crew members.

«More seriously, I had to take the Terran woman on board to take care of her in time. The stress gave her a little time before the anaphylaxy could build up, and gave me a little time to scan her vitals and find out the most adequate treatment.»

«I am fully aware that you took the decision that must have be taken, and I will do my part as well.»

«One thing that still puzzle me though, is that my scanners could immediately interpret her vitals and indicate the course of action to take with 90% accurracy. When encountering new species, the odds are more akin to 50% for each princeps. With a combination of princeps, the odds are obviously compounding and it goes quickly down. Not here.»

Sirak lift a brow. It fascinated Daxyl that Vulcan people were able to lift their brows more than what they naturally were, and she didn't waste any appropriate opportunity to provoke this reaction. The gaze of the captain grew sharper as he grasped the implication of what he was just told.

«Fascinating, it means that we already have data on this system. I will look into that. When she wakes up and is able to hold a conversation, please bring her to the meeting room.»

«Understood.»

Having finished, Sirak stand up from his chair, and left the sickbay. On her own again, the doctor breathed deeply and started drafting her report...

* * *

Sergeant Kirstash was guarding silently the people that was under her watch in the sickbay. The Ferengi man had lost a lot of blood. A substitute has been transfused, but the shock would leave him unconscious and weak for the time being. She imperceptibly snored at him, knowing that even if he was at his best of his abilities, she could handle him without bating an eye.

The Terran woman, Aloy, was more interesting, and not because she was a first encounter from a supposedly dead world. When she helped a nurse to remove the strange clothes soiled with Ferengi blood to put a basic and loose white tunic on the inconscious woman, she could see an incredible amount of scars of various sizes and shapes on perfectly and harmoniously toned muscles. This body told a story to the sergeant that made her Klingon blood boil.

It would be an understatement to say that Kirstash was fond of melee field battle. She dedicated any free time off duty to thoroughly hone her skills with the bat'leth and the mek'leth. Occasionnaly, she would book one of the Kau's holodeck for the whole night to reenact some great battlefield, either taken from the History of one of the planet of the Federation, or a simulated one with carefully selected parameters to spice up the challenge.

Although it was impossible to be injured inside an holodeck, she could setup the pain limiter to the minimum, so that any error of judgement would be punished with a very painful sensation, that could be maintained for some time to simulate a deep and debilitating wound.

Kirstash fantasized about a training session with Aloy when she got to store away the wicked spear, and all the other ranged weapons and ammunitions of the inconscious woman. Of course, she knowed that it was not possible.

The sergeant noticed how the vitals of Aloy was going steadily stronger, a telltale sign that she would wake up shortly. Breathing more intently, moving her head from side to side as if to push away her inconsiousness, the Terran woman opened her eyes, in full alert, scanning her surrounding and assessing the potential threat.

«Please stay calm,» Kirstash said with her rough voice, «you are safe here. Doctor, the Terran woman has woken up !»

«On my way !» the doctor replied through the combadge.


	6. Awakening

Waking up from the dreamless, medecine-induced sleep felt like when she woke up after the slaughter of the Proving. Of course, she was not hurting from almost lethal wounds and didn't felt hopelessly weak at all. But her mind felt the same groggyness and confusion. This awkward sensation faltered quickly to disappear as if it has never existed.

Bracing herself, Aloy opened her eyes, blinking a little to accomodate the hard lighting of the room. Looking intently at her surrondings, she quickly focused on the nearest woman. The huntress surmised that she was a guard from the fierce straightness of her standing and her alertness. Aloy was a bit surprised by the peculiar features on her face, as if a Carja noble had achieved to put her forehead decoration under her skin. The guard's uniform was definitely not known to the huntress, being utterly simple, light and functionnal like her sleeping clothes. So simple that there was an utility belt to carry a fist-sized device. Mostly black, and yellowish above the bust line. An arrowhead shaped insigna on the chest and some pins on the collar were the only accessories.

The guard locked her eyes on Aloy immediately, telling her reassurring words before pressing the small insigna at her chest and mumbling. A voice responded from the insigna, and the huntress recognized the voice of the doctor. This reminded Aloy about her focus, and she quickly brought her hand at her temple. Feeling nothing but her skin and hairs, she immediately sit on her bed, frantically looking for the little triangular device, to no avail.

«I said it is safe here, please stay calm !», said the guard with a firmer tone, as the doctor appeared from the next room.

«Where is my focus ?» the huntress asked with the same assertiveness. «The little device that was on my temple ? And where is all my stuff ?» she added when she realized that she was not wearing her own clothes, but a white and loose tunic made from a thin fabric akin to Carja silk, without the shiny look. Nothing more.

«Hello Aloy !» the doctor answered with a joyfull voice, «I am glad that you recovered well ! Following standard procedures, all your belonging had been removed and stored safely. Of course, anything looking dangerous have been stored in a separate location following safety rules. Please be assured that they will be given back to you shortly !»

«How long is 'shortly' ?» Aloy queried with an acid tone. She noticed that the doctor was wearing the same uniform as the guard, albeit blueish like the other healer that was tending the wounded Ferengi man, instead of yellowish like the guard.

«Well, you seem energetic enough,» Daxyl replied with the same joyfullness, «so after a quick examination, you will be able to change back. By the way, your clothes were cleaned to remove any significant –and harmful– traces of blood.»

«Thank you, I guess ?»

«You're welcome !» –the doctor winked at her while getting close– «Now would you be so kind to get up and stand still for the examination ?»

Daxyl pointed a small device toward the chest of a standing Aloy, then moved it slowly up and down. The huntress guessed that she was being scanned thoroughly. Those strange people seemed to have a technology on par with the Old Ones, probably better as she realized that she could see the holographic displays on the silver lined black slate held by the doctor without her focus.

«Well, you're totally fine !» said Daxyl, breaking Aloy's thoughts. «Sergeant Kirstash, please guide her to the changing room !»

«Yes Ma'am !»

The sergeant made a gesture to Aloy to request that she follows, and she walked to a little door that slided with a little scritch noise. The huntress walked resolutely to the changing room, relieved to see her clothes hanging, and most of her accessories gathered on a tray afixed on the wall. Once in the room, the door closed to give her some privacy.

The clothes were more than cleaned, they felt soft like new, save for the telltale signs of wearing. A little nice smell, like when one use soap to wash clothes. She quickly changed, feeling better with her usual clothes on, her necklaces, and her focus. She had a sigh of relief when she realized that among the few pouches she still had was the one containing the globe and the focus of Elisabet. Another pouch contained the few bite-sized pieces of dried food –meat and berries– that she usually kept on her to eat on the go. It reminded her that she did not have a breakfast —and maybe lunch— and she immediately gobbled one piece taken from the pouch.

While munching, she scanned her surrounding, and the focus immediatly highlighted lots of people around her, as if she was in the market of Meridian. She noted that most of the silhouettes where blue, confirming that she was safe, for the time being.

Tapping her focus a second time, and done with changing, she walked to the door that automatically opened again, and went back to the main room with Daxyl seemingly waiting for her. The doctor did not miss it when the young woman put another piece of food in her mouth.

«I see you are hungry, and it happens that I forgot to have a lunch, do you want to share a proper meal with me ?»

«Well, yes, I don't know how much meal I did miss since this morning, and I'm starving !»

«Then it's decided ! After that, we will go to a meeting room where you will be able to talk with Captain Sirak. He requested to have an interview with you as soon as you have recovered.»

«Sure, I am eager to ask him to get all my stuff back and be brought back to were I was this morning !»

«And he is the right person to request such thing ! Shall we go ?»

«Sure, your promised me a proper meal, remember ?»

«On our way, Ma'am» the doctor replied emphatically.

Aloy rolled her eyes and followed Daxyl. Once they exited the «sickbay» as the doctor has called this place, followed by an escort of two guards, they walked through a maze of hallways and elevators brightly lightened. It was bustling with life, confirming what she has seen through her focus. All the people were wearing the uniform she has learned to recognize, and she discovered that there was a reddish variation.

«How much people are there in this place ?» Aloy asked.

«I cannot be precise,» the doctor replied after a silence, «but you can guess we are a lot.» .

«Then I guess that you cannot tell me precisely from how much planets you all come from ?»

«Why should we come from other planets to begin with ?»

«The countrary would be highly illogical,» Aloy replied. «With your flying vehicles, your ability to move people instantly from one place to another, you would have occupied all the world long ago if you where living on Earth !»

«Earth ?»

«That's the name of my planet, according to the Old Ones, the people that were wiped away along with all life one thousand years ago.»

«I see. For us, this is the third planet of the 'Sol' system, named 'Terra'. And here we are, the cantina of the crew !»

Aloy entered the big room full of long tables. Peoples were sitting on cylindrical stools. It was not so crowded as lots of free seats where scattered all over the cantina, but it was still noisy. Daxyl lead the way to the wall where there was a series of big rectangular holes, holding her palm sized slate in front of her. The slate came to life, displaying an holographic interface.

«I have scanned you food when you were sleeping,» Daxyl said while gesturing with her free hand above the slate. «So I will be able to serve you a meal that will be edible, and to your taste.»

Two holes glowed a little ; a plate and a glass of water on a tray appeared in each one. The plate contained a big slice of roasted meat with a dark pink sauce with berries. The flavor made Aloy salivate and she took one of the tray while Daxyl took the other one and they took place face to face on a table that was almost empty. The huntress started to dig in. The perfectly roasted fatty meat was tender and melted in the mouth, the crisp skin gave a nice crunchy sensation, and the slightly acidulated berry sauce underlined its taste delightfully.

«Wow, jat'ch cho good !» Aloy said with the mouth still full. «I feel like at the palace of the Sun-King, even without the spice !»

«I'm glad to hear that !»

They ate silently for a few minutes, apeasing their hunger.

«So,» Daxyl started, «I find puzzling that any life on... 'Earth' has disappeared thousand years ago, because I could see it alive with my own eyes this morning. And you are well alive as well. How is that possible ?»

«Well, I'm alive because you saved my life this morning, remember ?» the huntress started jokingly.

The doctor rolled her eyes with a small laughter.

«About Earth... its rebirth is the work of a terraformation system managed by an artificial intelligence and everything needed to reseed the world with life. It has been designed and build by the Old Ones just before all life was erased.»

«Really ? That sounds... incredible !»

«It is, but I could saw the testimonies of the creators of the system, of the people that were fighting the rogue war machines, or were just waiting for the end to come. I went inside the cauldrons, the places where the system builds all the terraforming machines. If I could interface my focus to your devices, I could show you.»

They finished quietly their meal before continuing their talk.

«And did you find this artificial intelligence ?»

Aloy breathed slowly a couple of time before answering.

«I found her last message, a plea for help...»

«What do you mean ?»

«Gaia, that's the name of the artificial intelligence. She blowed herself up when the subordinate function tasked to reset the terraforming process, named Hades, went rogue and threatened to destroy the world. She requested to deal with Hades before starting any attempt to fix her. We battled against Hades recently. I still feel the shock from the electric arc that went through me when I pierced it with the override device.»

«That explains the peculiar scars that run along your body.»

«Yes.»

They stood in silence a little more. Aloy finished her glass of water. It was fresh but a little bland.

The insigna of Daxyl bipped to notify an incoming message.

«Doctor Daxyl, come to the sickbay immediately. Polytraumatic injuries, fractures, and freezing burns on Vulcan people.»

«Acknowledge !» the doctor replied before talking to her guest. «I'm sorry Aloy, I have to go. The escort will lead you to the meeting room.»

«I understand. Will I be able to see my planet from the meeting room ?»

«Oh... well, I think it's possible.»

Standing up, Daxyl gave her instructions to the escort before leaving quickly.

After walked again through a series of hallways and elevators by the guards, Aloy entered into the meeting room. As soon as she saw the view projected on the other side as if there was no wall, save for the security railings, she walked forward flabergasted. Avoiding the pieces of furnitures without seeing them she contemplated the Earth in all its glory. Keeping looking at the view, she opened the pouch containing the globe to grab it, and holding it at eyes level, trying to match the shape of the landmass she was seeing outside with the small facsimile. She found the match, although the actual shape deviated here and there.

«So much alike, and so different...» she said softly, without realizing.

A little cough bring her back to the meeting room, and she quickly put the globe back in its pouch before turning back and see that two men and a woman had entered, as well as Sergeant Kirstash that took the place allowing her to act quickly if needed. The men were wearing the reddish variation of the uniform.

The most close to her was tall and had a stern look that was emphasized by his brownish skin, a long face with high bones, slanted brows, and black frizzy hairs neatly cut short. Pointy ears was another specific trait of this man.

The second man was the same height than Aloy, had a pale complexion with freckles. His red hairs cut short showed an asymetric triangular implantation above his forehead, and the properly trimmed beard and mustach gave his skinny and soft face a more stoïc prestance. Aloy did not miss the two symetrical lines of spots that was running from his temples to the side of his neck.

The woman was not wearing an uniform, but a simple brown ensemble made of a knoted top and a trouser. She looked freshly patched up, with a whole side of her face bandaged down to the neck, as well as the hand from the same side. The other side of her face showed a fair complexion, slight wrinkles around the eyes. Her hairs were greyish with some white strands. Like the dark skinned man, she had the same pointed hears. She had a neutral composure, but a hint of weariness was visible nonetheless.

«I infer that this is the first time you see your homeworld from above, the tall man said. I am Sirak, captain of the _Kau t' wuh zhuk-fasek_ , or 'Kau' for short, an exploration and defense spacecraft of the Federation of the United Planets. And beside me is Commander Ryzon Vardin, and then Doctor T'Lek of the Vulcan Science Academy.»


	7. First contact

Captain's log, supplemental. We received a distress call from an observation mission on Terra, lead by Doctor T'Lek, requiring medical assistance. I was unaware of such mission being conducted, but a quick check by my science officer confirmed the fact. Doctor T'Lek was likewise surprised to get an immediate answer, and proceeded to give concise yet accurate details of their situation.

I sent an small away team to exfiltrate the wounded, consisting in Doctor T'Lek herself and her assistant. The pilot stayed on the ground, with some of my crew to assist him.

It turns out that the observation team had to land in order to fix a default in their impulse drive. It was leaking through their cloaking system and put them at risk. While the pilot was proceeding to the repairs, Doctor T'Lek and her assistant explored the vicinity of their landing location.

They were surprised by a herd of autonomous machines that became aggressive against them on sight, and they have almost been trampled. Then others machines arrived, some shooting energy beams, some throwing a freezing fluid. The assistant seems to have shielded the doctor from the energy beams and has been badly injured. The two suffered from freezing burns. Doctor T'Lek carried her assistant to the safety of the shuttle and send the distress call, while the pilot covered them with a phaser rifle.

While I came to check on Doctor T'Lek at the sickbay, where she was being treated and bandaged for her burns, Chief Medical Officer Daxyl started reporting about her talk with Aloy, the Terran woman. Doctor T'Lek took interest on the report, especially about the old recordings. She asked to accompany me to the meeting room, a request I find quite unreasonable in her state. And under normal circumstances relating to primitive worlds I would refuse, but Doctor Daxyl's report let me conclude with enough confidence that the Prime directive is safe, for now.

* * *

When they entered the meeting room, the Terran woman was contemplating her planet, and did not react at all. She seemed fascinated by the view. It reminded Sirak of when he was a child and could watch Vulcan from the space for the first time in his life ; it has left such an impression that it has driven him to join StarFleet to explore the galaxy.

He coughed firmly, and her guest quickly put back an object in one of her pouch before facing them, cheeks slightly flushed ; like a child caught off guard. He presented himself, his second in command, and Doctor T'Lek.

«I am Aloy.», the woman replied with a nod. «Anointed of the Nora, Savior of Meridian and retired chieftain, if titles are a thing here.»

Kirstash silently nodded in approbation, pleased by the confirmation of some of her assumptions about their guest.

Sirak lift a brow. The Terran was throwing her titles like it meant nothing to _her_ , just to make a point that she saw herself at an equal footing to _them_. She looked geniunely unaphased. During his carrier, a constant in his first contacts has been the awe he saw on the face of the encountered people, be it showed or tentatively hidden. Here, this 'Aloy' seemed so used to strange encounters that the only thing that awed her was the sight of her planet. Toward them, she only looked... curious. Eager to know them ?

«Are you fine Doctor T'Lek ?», the Terran asked with concern. «I heard something about freezeburns before Doctor Daxyl left me on my own, was it you ?»

«Oh, yes, fine enough», the doctor replied with a slightly surprised gaze.

«Hum, Doctor T'Lek wished strongly to talk with you, so I let it be.» Sirak continued with a sterner tone, not happy from the interruption. «First of all, I would like to thank you for saving the people that has survived the crash. And I feel relieved that you completely recovered from the strong effect of Ferengi blood.»

«Oh yes, about that. I hope I will not meet any more bleeding Ferengis before long though, I will not always have a charming Doctor Daxyl at the ready to look after me !»

Vardin giggled at the trait of humors. The Vulcans just smiled a little, while Kirstash quickly masqueraded her laught into a cough. Aloy felt less tensed, pleased that her humor hit right, for once.

«Then,» the captain continued on a neutral tone, «I would like to know how the Ferengi shuttle got to crash on your planet, can you tell me anything about that ?»

«Sure.» the Terran replied with a serious tone, looking intently to Sirak. «I was hunting at dawn, when my focus caught an unknown signal.» –She took off the little metallic trinket from her temple to show the device while speaking, before puting it back on her– «Looking toward the origin of this signal, I saw the shuttle being chased by a Stormbird, and it was already going down. I went to the wreckage as quickly as possible. It is fortunate that the Stormbird quickly lost interest in the shuttle as soon as it has crashed, because it allowed me to immediatly scan for survivors and evacuate them. The next thing I know, I was surrounded by your crew and Doctor Daxyl was in charge of them, and of me as well.»

They stay silent for a moment. Doctor T'Lek activated her padd, looking for a specific file.

«Please excuse me, is this machine what you call a 'Stormbird' ?» she asked as she gestured over her device. The holographic interface of the conference table activated itself and a fierce mechanical flying bird appeared in a blueish glow. The animation was showing the firing of several lightning balls.

«Exactly !» the Terran replied. «Did you meet one of these yourself ?»

«Yes, and me and my crew had better luck. And here captain,» she continued while focusing on her device, «here is a representation of my shuttle to get a better idea of the size of this machine.»

The bird shrinked a little and glided to the border of the oval table, while the shuttle of T'Lek appeared next to it. The machine was barely smaller, even if its slim shape and the articulated wings gave the false impression that the shuttle was four time the size of the bird.

«I see.» Commander Vardin said, before using his own device. «And here is the Ferengi spacecraft, as you can see it was three time the size of Doctor T'Lek's shuttle, and also old and clunky.»

A third spacecraft appeared over the table.

«I guess that we got a quite clear a picture of how the events unfolded about the crash.» Sirak concluded. «It clearly corroborate the records found on the Ferengi shuttle computer. Now Aloy, it happens that Doctor T'Lek was pursuing an observation mission of your world and heard about your knowledge about recordings from a thousands years ago.»

«Yes, I have seen some records that I found while exploring old ruins. Mostly texts and audio recordings, some of them holographic messages. And what is the purpose of your observations ? I hope you do not mean harm, because I can say we do not stand a chance !»

«The Federation is adamant to protect the planets that are not advanced enough to travel easily through the galaxy.» Sirak intervened sharply. «From what I can see, you are yet to be able to go into space. That is why I am here with my crew, because the people you saved this morning where smugglers ; we were tasked to apprehend them for trespassing your system. And as you know, the peculiar machines roaming your planet have dealt with them more harshly.»

The Terran nodded, and turn her gaze to Doctor T'Lek.

«In the case of Vulcan, a founder of the Federation, your system is close to us. It took less than 10 of your days for my shuttle to arrive here. That's why we find it wise to assess whether your world is ready for a greeting. And in my personnal case, I have been studying a very big and very old archive from your world since I am a child, and I wanted an update.»

The eyes of Aloy went wide and her mouth opened a little from excitement.

«When you say ''very big and very old archive'', could it be that you have the copy of ''Apollo'' that was on board of a spacecraft named Odyssey ? I read a message telling about a 'catastrophic failure' though.»

«So you are indeed knowledgeable of your world history...» the doctor replied softly, but she got the same expression of excitement on her face as the Terran.

The two women forgot about the others, talking back and forth. T'Lek had mostly studied Terran cultural and historical data, and she had also brought data about geography, the fauna and flora. She also had programmed her padd to be able to use Terran communication protocols. Aloy could share the texts and audio files related to the end of the Old Ones and the Zero Dawn project, the data about the machines, and talked about all the tribes she met, of how she has yet to find a way to explains them the truth she was knowing without shattering their beliefs and political equilibrium.

What puzzled a lot the Vulcan was the fact that the artificial intelligence managing the terraforming system has been designed to be emotionnal.

«That is so illogical !» T'Lek objected. «Emotions pollute any rationnal thinking with bias and prejudices. And then one should monitor the mental state of the AI.»

«About that, having a challenging task does help when it's lonely. And friendly interactions with humans is the best !» Aloy said vividly. «Hum, at least, that's what Cyan told me.»

«Cyan ?»

«Yes, Cyan is an AI that manages a facility designed to monitor and prevent a catastrophic eruption of a volcano. Its emotional design served as a template for Gaia.»

The conversation drifted to AI design. T'Lek noticed that Aloy's knowledge was lacking on the basics while she had grasped some high levels concepts on the other hand, but she was a fast learner, and the doctor felt like having a new pupil, smart and eager to learn.

Sirak and Vardin had left long ago, letting Kirstash watching over Doctor T'Lek and Aloy. A loud growl from the stomach of the Terran woman stopped the conversation. They decided to eat in the meeting room, and the doctor queried aloud the starship's AI to resynthetize the same menu that Aloy ate previously for them all, as Kirstash wanted to taste the food too.

«There is an AI that we can talk to here ?»

«The AI of this ship, as most AI I am aware of, are designed to be _queried_ to do a _task_. It could _query_ for supplemental data in order to perform said task. The fact that it can be commanded by voice does not count as 'talking to'.»

They ate in silence for a while. T'Lek looked up when she heard a sullen sigh from Aloy.

«What's wrong ?»

«I totally forgot to ask the captain about when I will be able to go back to my world, and get my stuff back !»

«About that», Kirstash replied before the doctor could speak, «Captain Sirak left me orders to let you go back after you are done talking with Doctor T'Lek.»

«Oh, of course I will not retain you any time longer.» T'Lek said sheepishly. «I'm sorry, it was so enthralling that I could not stop talking.»

«Me too, I would so much continue, but I have to go.»

They finished their meal and parted, T'Lek to the room provided by Sirak with an escort that was waiting for her, Aloy following Kirstash to the teleport bay. The terran found there a crate with all her weapons and ammunitions, and after a quick inspection, put back any pouches, quivers and weapons on herself.

After being confirmed that the crash location was clear —the Terran machines had spend the day clearing the carcass of the shuttle—, Kirstash gave the order to teleport back Aloy. They nodded at each other before the glowing beam engulfed the Terran, leaving the teleport pod empty after.


	8. Back to Earth

When Aloy was brought back to Earth, the sun was still setting. She could quickly go back to her camp, checking that it had been left untouched. The huntress was so excited by her talk with T'Lek that she felt restless.

She decided to go hunting, to force her mind to calm down and stay grounded, and also to not worry about food for the next days. Even if there was no pressing time limit for fixing Gaia, she wanted to make up for this day of forced stillness. At first she could not focus on her tasks, but a life dedicated to hunting made her mind quickly let go of distracting thoughts.

She came back to her camp and started preparing the wild fox she has killed and bleeded. After having skinned the little animal, she detached the lean meat in several portions that she skewered individually and put around the fire to cook them. She let the meat dry further before putting them off the fire to a storing leather pouch. Done with her preparations, she let the fire extinguish, and went to her bedroll.

Waking up at dawn as usual, a quick breakfast of dried meat and a sip of water, quickly latching her packages on the strider, and she leave her camp, adopting a steady galop. Her strider had got enough time to replenish it's blaze canister and could sustains such a speed for a prolonged time. Beside, this part of the travel was essentially so flat that she could check for danger far ahead and accomodate the speed accordingly.

The days went by and she had quickly returned at her usual pace, as it was more sustainable for her and her strider. Nonetheless she finally was getting near the Sundom, and was looking forward returning to populated areas where she could find merchants for trading.

She was surprised when her focus chimed, with a message popping up asking whether accepting an incoming call from T'Lek or not. The huntress gestured to allow the connection.

«Doctor T'Lek ? Are you still up there with Doctor Daxyl and everyone ?»

«Yes, I had to heal from the freezeburns remember ? And I had plenty of time to analyze all the data I collected on Earth. Speaking of that, I got data that tells about a big blow shattering a mountain around twenty years ago, and I am wondering whether it is related to what I heard from Doctor Daxyl about... Gaia ?»

Aloy received a pictures from T'Lek. She recognized immediately that it was a portion of the view she could have from Earth on board of the Kau. The picture was annotated with a dot marking her own position and a circle around the blowed site. Spoting without a doubt the Alight and Sunfall, she was certain that T'Lek had marked the area of Bitter Climb.

«You guessed right, it's the location of Gaia Prime.»

«Then...» –Aloy felt the hesitation of the Vulcan– «would you be open to guide me and a few members of Sirak's crew there ? We would like to see the site for ourself.»

Now the hesitation was on the side of the huntress. It did not take her long to assess that she prefered to tag along with T'Lek though, for the pleasure of her company as well as their mutual benefit in exploring the ruins together. But she could not help to think about preventing her guests to break or take something that would be essential to fix Gaïa.

«Are you good at climbing ? And have a lot of ropes ? Wait ! Does it means that Captain Sirak would be so kind as to teleport us there ? I guess I would be very open if you take me and all my stuff over there in the blink of eye, because I was heading there anyway ! The location is quite isolated, like where I am now, so I believe that it would not be a problem for your Federation.»

A silence fell before T'Lek gave an answer.

«Yes, Captain Sirak will certainly help us with transportation and basic commodities, and is glad to hear that there will be no cultural contamination from our help. Please prepare yourself and your bags, and tell me when you are ready.»

Aloy dismounted from her Strider, discharging all her belongings. After double checking, she gave her go to the doctor, and once again the glowing light engulfed her.

Arrived on board, she saw known faces waiting for her at the teleport bay. Sergeant Kirstash was near the pod with a big crate for Aloy to put her belongings into. After the approval of the sergeant, she went to Doctor T'Lek that greeted her with a peculiar hand sign.

«Live long and prosper, Aloy. It's so nice to see you again !»

The huntress tentatively mimicked the hand gesture, her fingers unsure at the awkward pose.

«Live long and... prosper, Doctor T'Lek. It's a pleasure for me too !»

T'Lek and Kirstash lead Aloy to the nearest meeting room, escorted by security guards as usual. In the meeting room, they found Sirak, Vardin and Daxyl. Another woman, doning the same uniform as the chief medical officer was there as well.

Captain Sirak introduced his Science Officer Rina Chaïri. Aloy noted her distinguishing features, most prominently a crested nose, and an strange pendant at the lobe of her right hear. Her composed expression, her olive complexion, surrounded by neatly arranged black hairs, gave an impression of serenity that was outlied by her intense and dark gaze.

They promptly went to the point, and the huntress concisely described the state of the ruins. With the help of T'Lek, she presented the original map of Gaia Prime through the holographic projector of the meeting room. She highligted the reactor at the middle height, and another room closer to the bottom and to one border.

«As you can see, the core of Gaia is in a room designed to sustain a lot of catastrophic event, and this room is not at the same level than the reactor. It is my hope that this room is still intact, as well as the core. Repairing Gaia would be easier if I don't have to build the AI from scratch.»

«Do you know the reason that triggered the explosion ?»

The question from the science officer startled the huntress slightly.

«Ye... Yes, as I already told Doctor Daxyl, I found a record that is the last message of Gaia, where she explain what happened to her... and what should be done...». She took a big breath before continuing. «This message was intended for me, as... my birth is linked to the destruction of Gaia...»

She sensed curious glances from everyone, while she looked for the recording she was talking about.

«I feel... I'm not comfortable yet... with some part of this message.» Despite mustering her self-control, she could not prevent struggling with finding her words and a slight shaking of her hand while navigating through her files. Her breath was a bit heavy.

The light touch of Daxyl's hand on her shoulder surprised the huntress, but she immediately sensed her tension ease.

«Aloy, if that cause you such a big distress to make us hear this message, we would understand and respect your reluctance. It seems to me that not knowing will be harmless.»

«I... Ok... But... I don't want to hide something. And... I... I don't want to be ashamed !».

The huntress struggled to keep her voice under control, and she found the contact of Daxyl soothing.

«Shhh... Of course you should not be ashamed to just be. Anyway the decision is yours.»

«I had decided when I accepted to help. I should have known it does not make it easier though.»

Regaining the control of her emotions, she started the recording without further hesitations.

«Elisabet: this message serves to inform you of an unforeseen and catastrophic anomaly. Three microseconds ago, the GAIA Prime facility received a data transmission of unknown origin. Its immediate effect was to transform my Subordinate Functions into unregulated, self-aware entities of a highly chaotic nature. Thus awakened, the HADES Function will now seize control of the terraforming system and reverse operations... rendering life on Earth extinct in fifty-three-point-eight days. For obvious reasons, I cannot... »

Knowing the message by heart, Aloy let her mind wandering, trying to not pay attention.

«...You are my solution. I have ordered this Cradle facility to use genetic material in cryo-storage to gestate a... re-instantiation of Elisabet Sobeck, my creator. ...»

She could not help paying attention after all. She winced a little, dreading that some of them would see her as a monster now. Her mind went blank.

The silence after the end of the message prolonged, until the doctor broke it.

«You are impressive ! I understand how this message is nerve wracking for you. And yet you find the strength inside you to cope with that. And I understand that Gaia _hopes_ that you will hear her plea, she does not _order_ you to abide her will.»

The huntress felt relieved by those words of understanding and reassurring about her free will. T'Lek and Kirstash patted her free shoulder to mark their support, while Daxyl did the same on her side. It felt good.

A cough of Sirak steered everybody to the main goal of the meeting. With his crew members, he devised an away team taylored for the exploration : Aloy as guide, Doctor T'Lek and Science Officer Rina as scientific experts, Commander Vardin and Sergeant Kirstash for their proficiency on any terrain, including mountainous areas. Chief Medical Officer Daxyl and her team would be on the ready in the starship in case of emergency.

Doctor T'Lek also got a surprise for Aloy : she had been able to synthetize a few focus from her data and the analysis performed by Kirstash during the previous visit of Aloy. Each member of the away team would be able to communicate and share visuals with a tool familiar to their guest.

Aloy returned to the teleportation bay, retrieving and checking her gear while the others prepared themselves for the mission.


	9. New life

Science officer's log, supplemental. The mission that was assigned to us for opportunistic reasons turned out to be more than just catching a bunch of Ferengi smugglers and then haggle with their ambassador to make them admit that the Federation has done nothing wrong.

On this point, Captain Sirak made sure to ask a hefty number of latinum bars to pay for the medical aid provided to the survivors. The Ferengi ambassador became more understanding at this point.

The encounter with the Terran woman named Aloy was more interesting, and I hate that I overlooked it and missed this opportunity. It could not be helped though, as it should have been a boring interrogation meeting to assess a possible breach of the Prime Directive.

I thanked Doctor T'Lek to share her impressions and most of the relevant facts she got from this meeting and I helped her to study the data collected on Terra.

I found terrific to discover the work of a succesful terraforming system. Until now the only experiments I heard of lasted only a few decades, up to a century at best, before collapsing. The Terran system got a thousand years to proceed, and no test run, and it worked smoothly, at least until recently.

Today I finally met Aloy, and I was not disappointed. She obviously does not count on us to fix the terraforming system, but she welcomes any help and advice we can provide, as limited as it will be. I understand why Captain Sirak let her go the first time and consented to to her partake in this mission.

One more thing. I always find difficult to trust people when I first meet them, but this is not the case with Aloy, and I am not the only one. I could witness how Doctor Daxyl provided her support. I never saw her do it like that for anyone else. I mean, she didn't comfort _me_ like that.

* * *

They were all beamed down near the entrance of the ruins, after the scan showed no immediate threat. Aloy noted that the Stormbird she had to hunt down the first time she came here had not been replaced, yet. She lead the way from the entrance to the end of the walkable path. There, she started to climb, following the path of holds set up by Sylens decades ago.

The shaman had build a crude manual elevator, a contraption made of a wooden platform held by a system of ropes and pulleys, that Aloy tested for its solidity. Satisfied, she get on the platform and made it go down, reaching the level of the path where the rest of the team were waiting. They went up two people at a time, and some of their packages of materials in between.

Done with that, they reached the workshop near the facility entrance. Aloy walked to the locked door, where she was scanned by a red laser beam, and finally greeted by a synthetic voice as «Doctor Sobeck». The huntress looked back at the crew with an awkward smile and waved at them to follow her. After walking through a first maze of rooms, hallways and elevator shafts, they reached the platform borderin in the open that allowed to reach the parts of the facility Aloy already visited.

Commander Vardin and Sergeant Kirstash entered into action, examining the features of the deep cliff bordering the platform. They choosed a location where it was quite vertical, and started to setup a path down to the bottom by strongly stapling regularly a rope to the cliff using big u-shaped metal rods, building an unconventionnal but effective ladder. The cliff was so deep that they had to ask for supplemental ropes and staples.

The team finally landed on the bottom of the ruins. Seen from the ground, the cracked-open hole that have encased Gaia Prime was impressive, to say the least.

The high walls of bare rocks were sporting deep fractures caused by the high pressure of the reactor's explosion. The view of the sky was so restrained that Chaïri could not help feeling oppressed, breath shortened by a claustrophobic fear of ending up trapped in this place.

The science officer forced herself to ease her breath, focussing her mind on the output of her tricorder. The little terran device, called ''focus'' by Aloy and Doctor T'Lek, was convenient in its way, but too limited for her needs of advanced realtime signal analysis.

The place where the reactor was had become a great depression where the water was flowing to form a lake before being engulfed by a crack along the rock. Nothing to see here.

Chaïri adjusted her tricorder to get an explorable map of the ruins, following the team in the search of an entry. With her focus, Aloy pinpointed a few locations that would allow to enter. Combining all those data with the original map of the facility, they got enough data to plan their exploration. They split in small groups to explore each entrance, update the map, and regroup near the room housing the core of Gaia.

It was easier said than done. They had to progress slowly, checking the floor and the walls to avoid a sudden collapse.

Getting closer to their goal, it became better, but their progression was impeded by the overgrow of cables and flexibles pipes all around that gave the Federation members the unnerving feeling of exploring the inside of a strange creature.

The Terran woman was unfazed, as it looked the same as in all the cauldrons facilities she had explored before. On the contrary, it was a confirmation that they were going to the right direction.

Finally reaching their goal, Aloy unlocked a last door equiped with an identity scanner, and they entered the room. As with other part of the facility that didn't suffered from the explosion, it was powered with a backup generator. Dimly lightened, wrapped in a barely hearable humming, the circular room was housing a man-sized dark sphere at its center, dozens of cables plugged all around it. It was surrounded and interconnected with nine smaller spheres.

Aloy recognized without doubt the cores of Gaia and all its subfunctions, and felt relieved to see them intact. The tough design of the datacenter have lived up to her expectations.

Scanning the cores, the team got readings of a minimal activity on the main one, while the others were inert.

«How peculiar !» Chaïri muttered, watching the flow of data from her tricorder. «It seems that the designers of the system went to great length to keep the memory powered at all cost.»

«What does it means ?» Aloy asked eagerly.

«It means that whatever you do to fix it, you should never ever mess with its backup power supply, or you will definitely lose the Gaia that ordered to birth you !» She gestured her forearm to underline the definitiveness of her statement.

A fleeting dismay showed on the Terran's face, and the science officer noticed it. She felt a little guilt at stating the fact harshly. People were so cumbersome to handle ! Tightening her lips, she went back to her tricorder.

«There is a main power line,» she continued on a softer tone. «It was connected to the main generator. If there is something to do, it will be on that.»

«Sounds like a plan !» Aloy responded matter-of-factly –looking for solutions was the best way for her to stay grounded–.

The group devised that they could repurpose any operational backup generator to power the core. They hoped that it would give enough power to bring the AI into an active state.

Taking the lead, Chaïri guided the team to recycle non-essential power lines and components to connect each generator to the main line. She went as far as keeping doors in an operational state, albeit more sluggish. She also took time to teach Aloy the basics of electric engineering, so that she would not fry herself –hopefully– as soon as she would be left on her own.

Back to the cores, they felt relieved to reads on their focus that the main core was more active, diagnostic messages popping up one after another.

«By the Prophets...» The science officer was mesmerized by the readings of her tricorder, underlining the moving patterns of the inner electric fields of the core.

«What is it, Chaïri ?» commander Vardin asked.

«This core, Sir, its components are from obviously outdated designs, and somehow it takes advantage of their typical electronic leaking to build a kind of... analog neuronal network ?...»

A sudden audio transmission startled them.

«ElisHZabeth... I wiXHRed...» –The faint and raspi voice was drowned in static, almost lost in the white noise.– «your CHXVoice...».

T'Lek noticed beside her how Aloy reacted empathically, her expression mirroring the suffering she was feeling from the synthetic voice. For her part, she was fascinated by all the subtelties encoded in the synthetic voice to convey emotions so naturally.

«Gaia...» the Terran answered softly. «I am Aloy, not Elizabeth. I found your message at the Eulathia-9 cradle.»

A single flickering voxel appeared in front of her. It looked so weak that she held her breath a little, fearing to blow it down like a candle in the wind.

«Aloy... Hades...»

«Hades is not a threat anymore !»

The voxel had a short surge of brilliance.

«Good... So tired...»

«We have tinkered with any working generator remaining here, you ought to feel weak for the time being.»

«Need... more power...»

«I'm working on it. Sleep for now, Gaia... Pleasant dreams.»

«Aloy... ... thank...»

The silence filled the room again, save for the huming telling that the core was still active.

«Well, I understand why we have science officers. Meeting an AI on its sickbed is not exciting at all !» Commander Vardin attempt to light the mood fell flat and was properly ignored.

«Is she OK now ?» Aloy asked with concern.

«Better than before.» the science officer replied, deeply focussing on the display of her tricorder. «Right now it... it is in a state akin to sleeping. Much better than before. It's amazing ! It do process information like a computer, and at the same time, its electronic field flows like a biological brain. I can almost recognize an engram ! It... _She_ is alive !»

A contact on her arm distracted her from her device, and she looked at a concerned Aloy.

«Barely. She seems to suffer. How should I proceed to help her ?»

Chaïri calmed down, mentally reviewing the data to choose the best course of actions.

«My advice would be to start with a reliable set of power generators. It will allow her to get more maintaince processes while sleeping, and better processing capacity while awake. Then you will have to fix her sensors and some others parts of the facility. For now it's like she had lost most of her limbs and sense, it must be painful.»

«And that will conclude this masterclass on how to get an AI back up and running !» the commander stated without further ado. «It's getting late, and we have to climb an awfully high cliff to double-check that I did my job properly. Shall we ?»

* * *

They went back to the worshop before the first door of Gaia Prime. The sun was settings and Aloy did not plan to walk at night through the treacherous and unforgiving path of Bitter Climb.

She had taken back all her stuff, and was with Doctor T'Lek that was still with her for a last farewell.

«I guess we won't meet before long.» the Terran woman said, punctuating her statement with a deep sigh.

«Yes, it will require patience before the Federation and the Vulcan High Council allow for another visit. And you will have to wait longer to get back a copy of Apollo.» 

«I see. Then I will have plenty of time to get Gaia back on her feet !»

«I hope so, I am curious to have an actual conversation with an AI ! Anyway, I am sure that you will succeed in that task. The better Gaia will be, the more she will be able to help you in turn. Live long and prosper, Aloy !»

The Terran woman repeated the peculiar greeting, watching T'Lek disappear in the blue glowing light. Now alone again, she stand still for a moment, before slowly returning to life and preparing her bed for the night.


	10. Epilogue

Aloy left behind her Free Heap and its heartbeat, a pulsing hammering sound, at times regular, at times unpredictable, always deafening ; and painful, when one suffers from hungover, even a mild one like this morning.

She had spend a few weeks there, partly enjoying the unfussing companionship of everyone, partly delaying the next part of her journey to the Sacred Land, where she intended to wait for the end of the winter to go into the Cut. She longed to talk with Cyan about her encounter with the Federation, and about Gaia's awakening. Aloy was sure that she could get some invaluable insight that would help her in her task of powering the now sleeping AI.

«Do you think we could reach the stars, someday ?» she had asked to Petra, who was taken aback by the sudden question.

It was yesterday evening, there was a feast to celebrate... well, to be honest, she had forgotten what was being celebrated. She had tried mead and drank too much of it, lured by its sweet taste. It had made her feel overwhelmed by the loud crowd and she had tried to find a more quiet place.

Sitting on the top of the stairway leading to Petra's forge, reclining back or her elbows, she was looking at the dark sky. The lights of the settlements made the stars less bright. The forgewoman had checked on the huntress, and Aloy had blurted out her question.

«Wow, and I thought that being drunk would let you confess your hopeless love for me !» Petra replied playfully while taking place beside the redhaired huntress.

«I hope that the day I fall hopelessly in love, I will not need to be drunk to confess it !» the redhead replied in the same tone, but her melancholic gaze told another story. She doubted to be able to love, let alone understand what it was.

«So what would you do if you could reach the stars ?» she asked again.

«What is there to do, that I cannot do here ?»

Aloy put a lot of thoughts, and Petra waited patiently for an answer.

«Yeah, you're right. This world is big enough, here and now ; I should take care of it first and foremost...» She stand up effortlessly, even if her moves were a bit sluggish because of the beverage. «Well, time to go to bed ! I will leave tomorrow morning.»

«Oh ?» A slight disappointment could be heard in Petra's voice. «Seeing you stay here for so long, I thought you would settle here for good.»

Without thinking, Aloy hugged tightly Petra. «I'd love to settle here for some time, really. Even if people here know my story, for them this is just one story among others ; it makes me feel that I _belong_ here. But I'm restless, remember ?»

She parted without waiting an answer, leaving the forgewoman on her own. Petra stand still for a moment before going back to the feist. She was thursty, hungry, and longed to hear silly stories to laugh all her content –and maybe more–.

Now on the road again, Aloy's thoughts were directed towards the Sacred Lands.

Because of their isolationnism and their prejudices against the Metal World, the Nora were bound to be wiped out by the next ill-willed tribe that would use more than swords, spears and bows.

Aloy's heart was in turmoil. The Nora had outcasted her at birth, and she had grown and thrived _despite_ them. Rost had been her foster tutor _thanks_ to them. She had expanded her familiarity and knowledge about the Metal World _despite_ them. She had roamed the world freely without being exiled _thanks_ to them. She had grown compassionate and caring _despite_ them. She had grown compassionate and caring _thanks_ to them.

«I never said the tribe wouldn’t need you !» Rost had said to Aloy as his last teaching. «The strength to stand alone is the strength to make a stand. To serve a purpose greater than yourself. That is the lesson you must learn. And remember it, after the Proving, and after I am gone.»

Aloy's mind was made up. She would do her best to steer the Nora to more openness to the world outside the Sacred Land, to make them see the Metal World as something bound to be dealt with instead of something to avoid at all cost.

It would not be easy —it would never been easy with them—. She had to convince the High-Matriarches, even Lansra, for there was nothing to be done without their consent. At the very least, she would help them by the limited means they would accept, and then let them be, for better or worse...


	11. Supplemental : original characters notes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Those are the notes I jolted down to draft my original characters.
> 
> _in order of appearance_

### T'Lek

Female xenoethnologist from Vulcan, 104 years old.

A xenoethnologist is the prefered profile for observation mission of seemingly primitive world (that have not reached the technology level required to be allowed in the Federation).

Multi-disciplinary background, personnally interested in System Sol. She has studied the Apollo data for decades, especially Terran cultural and historical data, before being allowed to do a flyby survey of the system Sol that has been quarantined with note of hazardness.

Discovering that this world is regenerated, she will study as much as possible the terraforming system.

### Daxyl

Female medecine doctor from Betazed, 46 years old.

Chief medical officer of Starfleet. Like to banter with Sirak, they have worked together for 10 years now. Her psychic abilites allow her to sooth the people she is treating and help her for counseling.

### Sirak

Male Starfleet captain from Vulcan, 87 years old. Assigned to a Ti'Mur class starship for 20 years, operating for the Federation of United Planetes.

At first very rigid, he can show lot of flexibility (for a Vulcan). Very loyal to the Federation. Doctor Daxyl is among the handful of people that he see as friend.

### Kirstash

Female Starfleet sergeant from Klingon, 23 years old.

A few years older than Aloy. The Klingon civilizations has softened with centuries of being allied to the Federation. Kirstash long for a more eventful life, in other word a life gained through the bat'leth.

### Vardin Ryzon

Male StarFleet commander from Trill, 37 years old. Has been assigned under captain Sirak for five years. Good records, he is a reliable man to Sirak.

His good social skills allow him to show benevolence and firmness as the situation sees fit, and is a counterpoint to the Vulcan stiffness of his captain. Try to do humor every now and then, without much success.

### Rina Chaïri

Female Starfleet science officer from Bajor, 27 years old. Has been assigned under Captain Sirak for three years. Not good at social skills, more at ease on the command deck than in an away team.


	12. Supplemental : Sirak concept art

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A visual to give an idea of captain Sirak. (ÆlexÆnder is my pseudo on Deviant Art) -- edited on 2020-04-19 to include the collar pips


End file.
